The Dark Minuet
by Kazashi
Summary: A spunky yet determined Namer, duty bound exorcists, and a being so demonic that it makes the Akuma look tame- what happens when a rift between worlds throws them all together? A D.GM and Symphony of the Ages crossover.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own either the Symphoy of the Ages, or Man, and I am not making any money off of this story.

Author's not: This is my first fanfiction, so I apologize if the characters seem a little (or a lot, I guess...) OOC. The character Minuet is of my own creation, but using the rules of SotA, so even she doesn't belong to me, not really.

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The steady waltz of the horses three beat gate pounded in the Minuet's ears as the princess raced for the rift in the space-time continuum. As she passed a group of travelers on the road, they caught a bare fraction of the curses flying out of the namer's mouth, cursing her both her luck and the accursed demon she was chasing. She knew she was already too late to stop the creature from contaminating another world (she had Meridian to thank for that knowledge), but the faster she arrived, the faster she'd be able to contain the damage. Praying to the All Father that she wasn't already too late, she pounded on through the forest to the place where the House of Remembrance once stood.

Pausing for a moment to stare in awe at the pulsating mass of white and blue light so reminiscent of Meridian's time spools, she steeled herself for the hardships to come. Before plunging right ahead, however, she made sure her instruments were secured and well protected from any trauma they might suffer from the trip to... wherever she was going. She sincerely hoped that it wasn't anywhere particularly nasty, but she couldn't choose where it dropped her off, could she? At least if it was somewhere uninhabitable, she wouldn't have to worry about the F'dor anymore, would she? Taking a deep breath, she urged her horse into the rift, and let it take her wherever it lead.

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"The rift is located on the Scottish Highlands, right here." Komui indicated the exact position on the map that he kept in his heinously disorganized office. "We've never seen anything like it before, so be careful. It may be caused by Innocence, but it may also be a trap by the the Millennium Earl."

"So that's why your sending me, the moyashi (_It's ALLEN!_), and the old panda- AAH!" And then there were two instead of three exorcists standing in front of Komui's desk, since Bookman had just rendered his apprentice unconscious. Still, the redhead's question was valid.

"Exactly. I would send Linalee as well, but she and Kanda haven't returned from their mission yet. If you need reinforcements, call and I'll send them as soon as they return. Here are the reports, so study them on your way. Good luck." Komui handed each of them a black, leather bound set of reports and left them to their preparations, praying that he wasn't sending them into an ambush. The next morning, the three exorcists set out after what they hoped would be another fragment of Innocence.


	2. Chapter 2

Minuet heaved a sigh of relief as she heard her horse's hoof beats on the solid ground of the world she had just entered, and breathed in the clear, crisp air of autumn in the Scottish Highlands. Not that she knew where she was, but that didn't keep her from appreciating the fine weather. What did stop her from appreciating the weather were the three people standing in front of her, their expressions mixtures of shock, curiosity, and a little suspicion. She offered them a friendly smile, and began her greeting. "Cyme we inne frid." She sincerely hoped they would understand the 'universal' language her forebears had used when coming to a new land, but two out of the three people before her looked at her as though she was speaking absolute nonsense.

The oldest, however, seemed more puzzled than anything. A moment later, and it clicked. "Cyme we inne frid fram the grip of deap to liffe in dis smylte land?" _Come we in peace from the grip of death to life in this fair land. That greeting hasn't been used in this world in... several millennium._

Minuet nodded, and continued to speak in the universal language. "I am Minuet, daughter of Rhapsody and princess of the Cymrian Empire and the Lirin Realm of Tyrian. Is there a more common language we can speak in?"

Answering in English, so that both Lavi and Allen would understand, he answered "Yes. We call this language English. Do you understand it?"

The language was like a conglomeration of Firbolg and Lirin- the structure of Firbolg, and what sounded like the vocabulary of the Lirin language. It took her a moment, but she responded with a "Yes, I do." The accent was very strange to them, but understandable. Speaking slowly, and trying to make as few mistakes as possible, "Did you visualize a person postluding out of this tear?" Ok, so it was actually quite terrible, but it got the message across.

"Did I see another person coming through the rift? No, I did not. We just arrived ourselves. We are searching for a substance called Innocence, and we believe that the rift may have been caused by it. Do you know anything about it?" Sure, it was a stretch, but perhaps this woman knew something of value.

"Innocence? I do not know anything about it." She could feel the element of ether about them, but she knew nothing of Innocence.

The older man was about to say something else when the white haired boy's eyes grew wide, and his left eye went black. The redhead whipped out a hammer about the size of a pen. "How many, and where are they?"

"S-seven level two's. And they're coming in from town." He closed his eyes, and suddenly his left arm became a huge armored claw. From the redhead came the cry of "Ōzuchi Kozuchi: Man, Man, MAN!" and the pen sized hammer grew to be as large as he was.

The white haired boy turned to her, a pleasant smile on his face. "You might want to stay back. It's about to get very dangerous here."

Now, Minuet had been in several sticky situations, and she knew that she could handle herself in a battle, but she did not know of the dangers of this world. So, until she knew what was going on, she would allow them to handle any battles. Still, that didn't mean that she was going to relax and just let them take care of her. No, She would be on high alert, ready to take care of herself should she need to. To that affect, she allowed her senses to spread out, listening to the wind, letting it tell her what was coming and from where. What she heard was the clicking and whirring of machines, mixed with the organic sounds of blood and weeping. "What is that sound?" Since they weren't here, she might as well ask what they were going to be facing.

"What sound?" The white haired boy expressed the confusion they were all feeling, since their senses were not as sharp as Minuet's, and they lacked the tie to the element of the Wind that allowed her such fantastic hearing.

"It sounds almost like a living machine, but it's also crying. It sounds rather... pitiable." She was, after all, her mother's daughter, and she felt sorry for the poor things.

"Those are akuma. They iare/i living machines, programmed to kill and powered by a soul that is trapped inside. It's our job, as exorcists, to destroy them and release the soul." The young man then turned to the akuma, which were just entering sight.

As the akuma drew closer, she placed her hand on Tysterisk, the sword her mother had given her after Michael, the Waste of Breath had been defeated. These...things sounded far too close to a Rakshas for comfort.

The three exorcists leaped into action, as one of the akuma began to fire its blood-bullets at the four people standing by the rift. Minuet backed her horse away from the attacking machines, trying to keep the beast calm. That proved to be very difficult, when a bullet made it through the exorcist's defenses, and hit her square in the chest. Swearing, Minuet called upon the power of her sword and her own connection to Wind to keep her from landing on her back, and crushing the instruments in her pack. Instead, she landed in a headstand and vaulted into a standing position. "Death's hairy iballs/i that hurt! Rutting machine!"

As she cursed the akuma that tried to kill her, she pulled the instruments out of her pack- all of them small hand harps like the kind her mother had used when passing through the fire at the center of the earth. She took the first one, and plucked out a haunting melody, and whispered isamoht/i, then set the little harp down. She took the next one, and played another melody that seemed to compliment and at the same time completely ignore the first, creating a slightly dissonant quality to the music. By now, all the akuma had stopped moving, and the exorcists were looking rather confused.

A third harp was played, following this same theme of dissonance and harmony, followed by her own voice. This last melody was punctuated by deep clicks in the back of her throat as she completed the first net in the thrall ritual. Still keeping in the same rhythm and tone of the 'song', Minuet addressed the exorcists. "Kill them now, before I pass out, if you don't mind. I can't hold this up forever." Hearing her speak, the three leaped into action, and soon vanquished the remaining akuma. As soon as the machines were destroyed, Minuet released the ritual, and fell to her knees. "Well that was fun..." was all she said before everything went black and she fell to the ground, unconscious.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: For anyone who cares, I am flying to France tomorrow for a Study Abroad program, and will not be able to post anything until I get back. That will be in June. Just a head's up.

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The first thing Minuet noticed was the fact that she was lying in a bed, and it was not her own. The second was the bright red and teal blur in front of her face as she slowly blinked her eyes open. Being her mother's daughter, there was only one course of action to be taken when a strange person is looming over you as you sleep, and that is a solid right cross to their jaw.

Lavi, who had simply been making sure she was alright, was not expecting to be sent reeling back with a broken jaw first thing in the morning. A strained cry of pain brought Bookman and Allen running in from the other room. The scene they opened the door to was simultaneously hilarious, and a little frightening.

"I'm sorry, but it was a knee-jerk reaction. I am not accustomed to having people looming over me as I sleep." Minuet was trying her best to calm Lavi down, and it was not working. Lavi, for his part, was only making incomprehensible mutterings of pain. "Oh, for goodness's sake." She sighed and softly spoke the name of silence, followed by the name of stillness. "There. That's better. Now, don't panic, I give you my word, you'll be fine." She placed her hand on Lavi's cheek, gently so as not to hut him any more than she already had, and invoked the ability her mother had learned in the Veil of Hoen, and had since passed on to her. Suddenly, Lavi's jaw was back in its proper place, and there was a large purple bruise on Min's own chin. "Oh, yah, tha' hur's. Sowy." Translation: Oh, yeah. That hurts. Sorry.

"W-what did you do?" She held up her hand, forestalling any further questions until her own jaw had healed properly.

Once the nasty purple had faded to moderately painful, almost healed yellow, she spoke. "I healed you, Sorry about that." She rubbed the now slightly less painful area as she spoke. "Next time, do not loom over me as I awake."

"Whatever you do, girl, it's even better than the old panda's acupuncture! But, why'd you get hurt?" Always the bookman, recording new happenings for future generations.

Surprisingly, it was not Min who answered, it was Bookman. "Empathetic healing, you stupid apprentice. Didn't I tell you to read up on namers while she slept?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Lavi grinned that annoying, 'I screwed up' grin, and sweat-dropped something awful.

"I take it then, that namers are not common in this place?" While they were not too common back home, Minuet got the distinct feeling that the only one who knew anything about her profession was the old man. Perhaps namers didn't exist here...

"No, they are not. You are the first I have ever met, or heard of existing in this particular world." This gave both the princess and bookman reason to pause and reflect upon this exchange of information. However, this also gave Lavi and Allen a chance to come up with questions. Allen was the first one to ask his, saving Lavi the trouble of having to look up the basic information on namers.

"Um... I hate to be rude, but... what is a namer?" And who could deny such an adorable face? Min certainly couldn't!

"You could say a namer is a sort of bard, but we are so much more. We are the keepers of lore, the very essence of reality. When we are in tune with the vibrations of the world, we can change things by speaking true names." There was more to it, but with her limited vocabulary, and without speaking until the sun set, that was really all she could say.

"So, what can you change?" Allen was curious now. Maybe, just maybe, she could help them against the Akuma...

"Well, I can change the states of an object or being, I can make little changes to the actual thing itself, like I can turn unleavened bread into a softer bread. I cannot, however, make something completely new- I cannot turn bread into sausage and eggs, as wonderful a talent that would be." At this statement, Allen's face fell a little. "I can also command living things, like telling a plant to grow. My mother actually managed to tell an oak tree to bloom, and the blossoms could be seen with human eyes. It was quite amazing."

The talk of Minuet's abilities and training went long into the evening, and it was decided that she would accompany the exorcists to their headquarters and speak with Komui. After all, she seemed to be a very capable woman who would work well with the Dark Religious Order, and she would find some desperately needed allies in a strange, new place. Bookman placed a call to headquarters, explaining the situation, and Komui agreed. He, too, was curious about this newcomer to their world.


	4. Chapter 4

Ok, so I know I said I wasn't going to upload in France, but inspiration struck me, and I've been writing a little bit each night before I go to bed, and I had plenty of spare time in the airports. After this, all the chapters will have been written entirely in France. They'll probably be pretty sporadic, but.. yeah. Here it is!

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The whole scene was rather familiar. Well, to Allen, at least. The same thing had happened to him with the persnickety gatekeeper. Had it not been so serious, he might have laughed at the comedy of errors unfolding before him.

"For the last time, I'm still partly human. Just because I'm of mixed race doesn't mean that you can't let me in." It was obvious that Minuet was not happy with the hypochondriac gatekeeper, but she was trying to deal with is as an ambassador, which is precisely what she was. The gatekeeper, however, was not being at all cooperative.

"But I can only allow humans inside! If I can't get a good reading on you, how can I be sure you're not an akuma?!" Allen sighed as he listened, wondering why Komui didn't intervene. But, knowing that sister-obsessed scientist, he was either asleep, or building another Komurin. The exorcist sincerely hoped it wasn't the latter.

"I give you my word as a namer, that I am _not_ an akuma." The terse words were hissed between teeth clenched in anger. This was not what Min had been expecting when she agreed to come to the headquarters of the Dark Religious Organization. Not. At. All.

"But how am I supposed to know you're telling the truth?" Uh oh. That did it. The gatekeeper had no idea the kind of floodgates of anger he had just opened.

"You _dare_ insinuate that a _namer_, a keeper of lore and a person sworn to speak only the absolute truth as they see it, would tell such a blatant, and obvious _lie_, simply to gain access to a place that, in all honesty, I could probably sneak into anyway?" her cold demeanor interlaced with scathing words had sufficiently cowed the gatekeeper, but another person, less easily intimidated, had already begun an attack.

"Kanda!" Allen cried out as his fellow exorcist descended seemingly from nowhere. "Stop! She's a friend!"

Minuet was not going to wait for the attacker, Kanda, to heed his friend's words, but instead drew Tysterisk, and easily blocked his sword. "I am not an enemy."

"We can't be sure you're not an akuma. We'll see when I split you open." Allen grimaced when he heard a line almost verbatim of what he'd heard when he first arrived.

"That will prove to be a tougher task than you think, kid. I've got decades on you, at least." With that, she began her attack, calling on the wind to push the samurai off balance as she moved in. A single tap near the hilt in precisely the right place, and the sword went flying. Before he could react, Min grabbed his hand, and twisted him to lie prone on the ground. She then sat down on his back, pinning him to the stone with her own weight, and keeping painful, but not harmful tension on his arm. "Are you done yet? Or do I have to break your arm?"

Suddenly, the door opened and a pretty girl with pigtails came out carrying a clipboard. "Kanda! Don't attack our geusts! Come on. You've been cleared to enter. Sorry about that." With that, she turned and let the exorcists enter the building. "When she lets you up, you better not attack her." The samurai's response to this was simply 'che'.

Once Min deemed it safe to let go of her attacker, she stood, and offered him a hand up. "Kanda, was it? No hard feelings. I'd have done the same thing if someone were giving grief to the guards at my home."

"I don't need your help." No apology, just a grudging nod of respect. He had never seen anyone so fast, and he had no idea how he had ended up off balance, but he knew when he had been beaten. Min had seen such pride in others, and knew not to be offended. The namer knew that this was all the recognition she'd get. _Maybe_ a proposition to spar later. _Maybe_.

"Come on, you two, or you'll get locked outside again!" Linalee called out from inside, and the two walked briskly into the building. Min had never seen anything like it. It rivaled the genius of Gwylliam's architecture in the Cauldron, and the technology needed to construct such was far beyond anything she had seen. Perhaps in this world, there would be something to help her discern the host of the F'dor from the rest of the population. Who knows? All she could do was pray to Mithras, and hope for the best.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: This chapter doesn't have a lot of action in the beginning, but I made it longer and included some action at the end to compensate. Sorry, but the explanations had to be made...

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The meeting with the supervisor was not what Minuet had expected. Linalee had bade her to wait outside while she announced their presence to the supervisor, and closed the door behind her. That didn't stop her from hearing the sounds of them trying to wake up the man behind the desk from reaching her ears. First, she smiled as she heard the soft urgings of Linalee to wake up. Then, she snickered as Linalee and a few men raised their voices, and nothing happened. She then became rather confused as she heard something to the effect of "Linalee is on a date with a boy," and then some ominous whirring sound that she the exorcists beside her identified as a 'drill'. Allen in particular shuddered at the sound, saying that Min was lucky to not have been born with any innocence, or she'd get to know that drill quite personally.

Finally, the door opened, and Linalee allowed them to enter. "You must be Princess Minuet. Welcome to the Dark Religious Order Headquarters." The man speaking to her had black hair and glasses. "My name is Komui Lee, and I am the supervisor here."

"Greetings. First off, if we're not in any formal meetings or such, Min will do just fine. I hate being so caught up on formalities that true communication is lost." She smiled at the man, then gestured to one of the seats in the paper-strewn office. "May I? It's been quite a journey here, and I feel the need to rest my legs."

"Of course, please make yourself comfortable." He took his seat once more, and continued. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Coffee?" Min raised an eyebrow. "My father drinks that. I don't know how he does it, but I can't get it past my nose. If you have some herbal tea, I would gladly take a mug." Linalee nodded, and went off in search for the often unused herbal tea.

"Now, to business." Komui, suddenly looking more like a supervisor and less like an older brother, studied Min closely as he spoke. "My exorcists tell me that you are hunting an enemy, and that you followed it here through the rift made by the innocence. Can you elaborate?"

"In a minute. May I secure this room? If my prey catches a bit of my tale on the wind, it will make the hunt infinitely more difficult." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, hand-held harp, like the ones she used against the Akuma.

At Komui's affirmative nod, she began to play a simple melody, weaving in as many protective notes as she could, bidding the music and the wind to keep her words trapped within the room. Once she had finished composing the song, she whispered _samoht_, and set the still playing instrument on the desk in front of Komui. "Now, do you want the long or short version of my tale? The long version may take... days to recount."

At the word 'days', Allen groaned. He was getting hungry! Luckily, Komui also realized the need for food, and the lack of time in the busy headquarters, so he opted for the short version.

"Alright," she began, "The enemy is one of the primordial races, born at the beginning of time in my world. They are the beings born of the element of fire, and are called the F'dor. They are a parasitic being that attaches to humans and other younger beings, and feeds off of their soul. They desire one thing, and that is complete and total destruction. That is to say, that they want to return existence back to to void that came before everything we see in the universe. Naturally, the rest of the races are opposed to this, and the F'dor were trapped within a vault at the center of our world. They escaped through the cataclysmic impact of a star and our world. Many of them escaped, and have been causing havoc in our world ever since. Most of the ones that have escaped have been slain, but not all. The one that I am hunting discovered the passage between our two worlds, and passed through. Naturally, I followed it, and ran into Allen, Lavi, and Bookman. From there, I think you have the rest of the story." She took a breathe, and launched into the proposal she had been pondering since her arrival, and hearing the history of the Dark Order. "That being said, I have a proposition for you. I cannot find this monster on my own. Your world is simply too strange to me. If I was my uncle, then there would be no problem, but sadly, I am not. From what I hear, you are in desperate need of people to fight against the Akuma and the Millennium Earl. I propose an alliance. I am willing to help you in your war, and all I

ask is for you to help me in mine."

"What can we do to help?" From the sound of it, these F'dor were independent, more powerful versions of Akuma, and something the world could do without, but he didn't know how the Order, struggling as it was with its own war, could help this woman.

"What you can do, is keep me up to date with any strange occurrences, random outbreaks of violence, mysterious deaths, particularly within the clergy, that sort of thing. These creatures are extremely intelligent, and completely capable of orchestrating wars that will span the entire globe if they go unchecked." Minuet thought this should be something relatively easy to do, since from what she had heard, they kept apprised of supernatural events anyway, and random acts of violence would not be so taxing an addition to their watch.

"I believe we can do that. But, what can you offer us in return?" Komui had heard of the strange healing ability, and the use of music to stop the Akuma dead in their tracks, but if there was more she could do...

"What do you need?"

"Honestly, we need more exorcists. We have only a few, and they are the only ones who can kill Akuma, at least the only ones who can destroy them and purify the souls used to power them." If this woman was an accommodator, then their problems would be solved.

"I have no idea if I could be an exorcist. I had never heard of Innocence before I came here."

"There's only one way to know, Komui." It was Bookman who spoke this time. "Take her to see Hevulaska.

"Who's Hevulaska?"

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The lift down to the bowls of the Order was...disconcerting to say the least. There was nothing attaching it to the rest of the tower! But, the rest of the group seemed to trust it, so Min and Komui stepped on board, and rode the lift down together, Allen and the rest of the exorcists waving down to them. The being called Hevulaska was not at all what Min thought she would be. She was mildly resemblant of a Dragon in elemental form mixed with a mythlin, but not quite. She didn't know what to make of her, so she observed silently as Komui explained the situation. "..so, do you feel anything from any of the Innocences in you?"

She closed her eyes, and focused on the pieces of ether within her, and replied softly, "yes." A single piece of the Innocence was brought up and out of the creature, and held out to Minuet as Komui's eyes widened in pleasant surprise.

Not really knowing why, the namer reached out and took the Innocence in her hand. She could feel the power and age coursing through the tiny bit of star matter she held in her hand, and she could almost hear it whispering its secrets to her. But, there was something off... "You're out or tune..." She whispered to the Innocence. "You're a little flat. Here." She hummed a soft note, ever so slightly higher than the soft emissions of the Innocence. The cube matched the tone, and instantly liquefied. In her hand, it took on the shape of a diamond dragon, reflecting the light given off by Hevulaska, and refracting it into all the visible colors. The dragon stretched its wings, took flight, and dove straight into Minuet's chest. She gasped as blinding pain coursed throughout her body. It felt as though fire liquid fire flowed through her veins, followed by a glacial chill. A primal scream erupted from her throat, but instead of the clear, single voice came the multi-tonal vibrations of her dragon ancestors. She fell to her knees, tears leaking out of the corners of her tightly clenched eyes.

Komui, a panicked look on his face, rushed to her side, and put his arms around her. He held her tightly, whispering softly in her ears, trying vainly to get her to relax, until Hevulaska warned him to stand back. At that moment, Minuet felt something tearing at her back, and then a sudden release of pressure as two gigantic, leathery wings exploded from her back. The fire and ice in her veins seemed to separate, and gather in her throat and palms respectively. A soothing coolness settled in her feet, and her forehead suddenly ached as though she had spent years reading physics textbooks without taking a break. Just as suddenly as it started, the pain stopped, and Minuet lay gasping on the floor.

The woman before Komui looked almost nothing like the gentle woman that had come in through the door earlier that day. Visible all over her body were lines of shimmering white scales, sparkling in the soft light. The scales followed the lines of her cheekbones, the curve of her jaw, the contours of her neck, and across the bridge of her nose. They formed a mask around her eyes, once a vivid green, now sparkling white. They were somewhat similar to Allen's, but brighter still. The pupils of her eyes were no longer round and human, but serpentine, and barely visible among the glittering of her diamond irises were minuscule stars, forming a ring around the pupil. The diamond scales wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, and if one were to look beneath her clothes, they would find scales following the lines of her ribs and the contours of her hips. On her forehead was the mark of a many pointed star, shimmering slightly with an iridescent quality not unlike that of Hevulaska. On her throat was a ruby red, long bodied dragon, spiraling about her voice box, and breathing a small plume of fire. On each hand were linear representations of waves in cobalt blue. The wings retreated down into her back, leaving a pure white, linear representation of dragon wings on her shoulder blades. On each foot was a finely detailed, almost photo perfect, drawing of the Great White Oak and Sagia, the first and last of the trees sprung from the five places of time's birth. "W-what...what happened?" Even her voice had changed, for as soon as Min spoke, she thought that perhaps Elynsynos had somehow come to this world, but... that wasn't possible. But her voice... it was a mixture of her old one, and a vibrational manipulation that the voiceless dragons fashioned to communicate with humans. "Komui? What happened?"

Komui thought for a moment, then knelt down beside her. He placed his hand on her shoulder, and smiled softly, comfortingly, like he used to do for Linalee. "You've synchronized with your Innocence. I've never seen it done so...literally before, but, well, there you have it. It seems your Innocence is a parasitic type, thought what it does, we won't know for a while yet. Not until you invoke it."

"Invo- Oh MITHRAS!" Min curled in on herself again as she was assaulted by millions upon millions of details she had missed before. _3,3927,487,298,001 holes in the iron floor, 2,260 electrical charges released in Komui's muscles, 5 different chemicals released- surprise- "_STOP IT!" She screamed at the vocal manifestation of the draconic blood the Innocence seemed to have awakened.

"Stop what? What's wrong?" Komui was worried now- she was the proper accommodator for this Innocence- it had synchronized with her on its own. So why was she having such a painful reaction?

"It woke it up, oh Mithras, oh gods it woke it up..." She took several deep breaths, and promised her dragon blood that she would let it experience the world, but later. That seemed to pacify the little voice, and she could focus on what Komui was saying.

"... possible that she wasn't the accommodator?"

"Komui..." He rushed to her side, listening intently. "I am the accommodator. The complications come from my racial makeup. Contact with such a pure element awakened the dragon blood in me. That comes with certain... problems. That's what I was yelling about. I'm fine. Really. Can we...can we go? I need... I need to see the sky. Please?" He nodded, and the elevator began its ascent, not noticing the tears crystallizing into diamonds beneath the iron grating.

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Hopefully, that was enough action to make up for boring exposition, and the wait.


	6. Chapter 6

Min stared at the stranger in the mirror, barely recognizing her own face. So much had changed... She truly looked frightening now. At least, perhaps, the marriage proposals would stop once she showed her face in her Mother's court, and the people saw how strange she looked. Then again, the strangeness did not take away from the beauty she had inherited from her mother, so perhaps not.

It was only when Komui mentioned food that Min realized how hungry she truly was. Though, the idea of going into the cafeteria looking like she did was a bit...frightening. Still, these people would see her one way or another, so she might as well get it over with. Her own clothing had been torn to shreds as the Innocence merged with her body, so Komui had someone bring her an exorcist's uniform. It was a little on the large side, but it would do until they had finished customizing her own uniform.

Komui, of course, tried to take this moment to escape from his paperwork, but Linalee wouldn't let him. Instead, she took charge of Min, and showed her to the cafeteria. Once she entered, a hushed silence reigned as the assorted exorcists and finders caught sight of her. She truly was an impressive, and beautiful sight, though of course, taking after her mother, Minuet took the uncomfortable silence as a negative thing, and sighed.

"This way. I'll introduce you to our chef, Jerry." Linalee lead her to the window where a man with pink hair braided into two very long braids.

As soon as he noticed the two women, he immediately set down the wok he was using to stir fry someone's lunch, leaned out the window. "Oh! You must be the new girl! Looks like you're an exorcist, and a PARASITIC type too! Oh! I'm going to love cooking for you! Please, tell me something to cook for you."

Min didn't quite know what to make of the man, so she turned to Linalee, with a look on her face that clearly said 'please help me!' Linalee smiled, and turned to Jerry and said, "While she's thinking of something, could I please have some chicken mei fun, and a cup of tea?"

"Of course you can, darling! Coming right up! Take your time, sweetie!" The last was directed at Min, who still had no idea what she should do.

"Just think of something you'd like, and Jerry will cook it for you. It doesn't matter what it is, he'll make it for you. Since you're a parasitic type, I'd order a lot of food. The Innocence takes quite a bit of energy to keep up." Linalee smiled as Jerry handed her the meal impossibly fast. "Just think of something, and I'm sure he can make it for you."

"Let's see... Can you make a roast of venison in a rosemary sage and mushroom sauce, flaky biscuits with honey, a tomato salad with a sharp cheese crumbled on top, and carrots cooked with dill and butter? And can I have that in portions that would feed a parasitic type? I don't really know how much that is, since I just got my Innocence about half a candle mark ago." Jerry's eyes lit up at the order, since no one ever ordered venison, and few people could give him such specific instructions to follow about seasoning. He had a feeling that he would get along well with the new exorcist.

"Of course, sweetie! Go have a seat, and I'll bring it out to you when its done." With that, he started on the large meal.

Min, taking his advice, found a seat next to Allen, who had just finished his own meal, and was piling the empty dishes on top of each other, to make some room. "May I sit next to you, Allen?"

"Sure! I was just finishing, but I don't have anything to do, so I'll keep you company." Of course, he'd ask her about her Innocence once she sat down. "So I take it your meeting with Komui and Hevulaska went alright? I mean, you got Innocence, right?"

"I did, but it wasn't all that pleasant." Putting it mildly- that had been one of the most painful experiences of her life.

"So, what does it do, your Innocence?" Allen was extremely curious as to what the lines and symbols did.

"Well, I haven't invoked her yet, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the elements. I have five symbols, representing the five primordial elements of creation, and dragons are able to commune with the elements, so it makes sense." On the trip here, she had breifly explained the lore surrounding the creation of her world to Bookman, Lavi, and Allen, so the white haired exorcist knew to what she was referring. "Komui thought it would be a good idea to let me eat and rest before I attempt to invoke her."

"Her?" Allen had never heard of anyone's Innocence having a gender...

"Her. Well, I don't know if the Innocence itself has a gender, but the dragon blood it awoke is definitely feminine." She had actually spent a good deal of time spent in front of the mirror subduing the child like dragon within her mind, asking it to be patient, and experience things as Minuet does. Eventually, they reached a compromise. Min would allow the dragon to count and examine whatever she wanted, as long as it did not distract Min, or cause any...socially awkward situations.

"What do you mean by waking up the dragon blood?"

Minuet was saved from answering by Jerry bringing out three carts full of everything she had ordered. "This is enough to feed five large Firbolg warriors! With some to spare!" Jerry simply laughed it off, and returned to the kitchen.

"Parasitic types eat a lot more than normal people. I eat enough to feed five to six people twice my size each sitting, as well." He gestured to the carts as he spoke. "You'd better eat it before it gets cold."

As soon as Min took the first bite, she understood what Allen had been talking about. She was suddenly ravenous. The entire meal was gone within three minutes. And her stomach still felt empty. "I think I'll ask for seconds..." She returned from the window with another serving of the same size, to Allen's amazement.

"You're not serious, right? You're... that's twice as much as I eat!"

"I'm still hungry!" Again, the food seemed to disappear, as if by magic. By the end of lunch, she had eaten the equivalent of three deer in venison alone, and enough bread and vegetables to feed an entire Firbolg tribe. "That was delicious, but I don't think I'll be eating for quite a while..."

Allen laughed, fully expecting to see her eating just as much for dinner. It was at that precise moment that Lavi entered the cafeteria, followed closely by Kanda, who had Mugen drawn, and his hair braided.

"Baka usugi! Come back here! You are _dead!_" He looked and sounded _pissed_.

Lavi, of course, didn't listen to him, but ran instead to Allen. "ALLEN! HELP ME!" Of course, as soon as he stopped at Allen and Min's table, Mugen was at his neck. "Yuu-chan! Please don't kill me!"

"You interrupted my meditation, and braided my hair. And don't. call. me. Yuu. My name is _Ka- UGH!_" He was cut off as Min, who was in her seat across the table a minute ago, lifted him off the ground from behind, and held him against a wall. In his surprise, Kanda had accidentally dropped Mugen, and so he was defenseless.

"Do. Not. Hurt. Lavi." The voice that spoke was not Minuet's, but purely a manipulation of the air around them to create the sound of words. It was purely the dragon. Although, as soon as Min realized what had happened, she wrested control of the dragon, and set Kanda down. "Are you alright? I'm sorry, but, well, it's complicated." The voice this time was 100% Min, since the dragon was now in the non-physical form of a 'time out'.

"Complicated how?" Kanda, more shaken than anything, needed to know what to expect from the- wait. She didn't look like that earlier. "What happened to you?" he asked quickly after.

"I received a piece of Innocence, and it woke up the dragon blood." Minuet paused a moment before sighing and continuing. "The dragon is very possessive, and when you threatened Lavi, who she considers a part of her hoard, she had to act. I'm sorry I didn't stop her sooner. I'm still very new to this sort of thing."

"So you're an exorcist now, too? That's great!" Lavi, who didn't seem to be disturbed at all at being considered a part of a dragon's hoard, interjected.

Kanda, however, was not so flippant about being slammed into a wall. "What do you mean 'hoard'?"

Min sighed. This might take a while. "You've heard that dragons are greedy, right?" At his affirmative nod, she continued. "That is not true. I've heard my great, great grandmother explain it like this. Dragons are not greedy, we only want what we feel belongs to us, and we will guard what we feel belongs to us with everything we have, be it a single gold coin, a person, or a country. Lavi is a friend of mine, and therefore holds a place in the hoard. When you attacked him, the dragon felt that you were trying to take him away, and refused to let you do that."

"So... this means that Yuu-chan can't hurt me in front of you?" Lavi had a look of pure mischief on his face as he spoke, making Min a bit reluctant to answer.

"Until I forge a better hold on the dragon, yes. And any marks on you will make it difficult to keep the dragon in check. Like the bruise forming on your bicep. Did Kanda hit you there?"

"How did you know?" The arm in question was covered by a sleeve.

"There's a bit of heat gathering there, and I can smell the blood this close to the surface. It won't get too bad, but I'll heal it anyway." Lavi expected her to use the empathetic healing like she did before, but instead she started humming a staccato tune(1) that just seemed to suit Lavi. The successor to Bookman could feel the bruise going away, and after a moment it was completely gone. "All done. Feel better?"

"Yeah, I feel great! Thanks!"

It was at this precise moment that Linalee returned to the dining room. "Lavi, Allen, and Min, my brother needs to see you in his office. Lavi, do you know where Bookman is?"

"The library, like usual. Want me to get him?" When she nodded yes, Lavi headed off to the library, letting Linalee lead the other two off to Komui's office.

"My brother doesn't really want to send you out on a mission without you ever activating your Innocence, Min, but he really doesn't have much of a choice." Linalee was a little worried about their newest exorcist, though from what she had heard from Allen, Lavi, and Bookman, the dragonesque woman had been a formidable force even before she gained the Innocence, and she had seen her singlehandedly take down Kanda without breaking a sweat, so she suspected that she would be fine.

"I take it, then, that this mission is very important?" Whatever it was, the Dark Order had to realize that her priorities would always be the destruction of the F'dor, so sending her out on important missions seemed to be a little irresponsible at the least.

"I'll let my brother explain it, but yes, it is. All of the exorcists are going to be participating." Linalee would say no more, wanting to wait for Lavi and Bookman before giving information.

Once the whole group was assembled in Komui's office, the supervisor began to speak. "As you may or may not be aware, one of our generals, General Yaegar, has been killed in the line of duty. It seems that the enemy is targeting the generals specifically, so we are splitting the exorcists into teams that are to seek out and protect our four remaining generals. Three of those generals' whereabouts are known, Generals Theadore, Klaud Nine, and Zokaro. The fourth general, General Cross, has not contacted headquarters in over four years."

"That's what we call a 'deserter' in my world," Min said softly, with a small smirk on her face. "If Grunthor got ahold of him, gods, I don't even want to think about what he'd do to him."

"Well, you'd better keep this Grunthor fellow away from General Cross, then, because you five will be guarding him."

As soon as the words left Komui's mouth, an unexpected reaction was seen in Allen. "NO!" he yelled, "I refuse! Anyone but _Cross!_" A subtle, yet unmistakable undertone of panic and fear was present in the white haired boy's voice, and it made Min more than a little curious.

"What do you have against General Cross?"

"I was his apprentice." The involuntary shudder was enough to tell the namer that this was not a desirable position.

"Is he really that horrible?" Min wanted to know exactly what kind of man she was dealing with. After all, Allen was still, in her opinion, a child, and a part of her hoard. If this Cross had mistreated him...

"Wait- he hasn't contacted Headquarters for over four years, how does he live?" Lavi tried to think of how he would get the basic necessities, but couldn't come up with anything.

"Debt. He borrows money, gambles, and lives on debt. When I traveled with him, he'd dump them all on me, and make me work them off. He spent so much money on alcohol, cigarettes, and women... I still have nightmares about the amount of debt..." Each word enraged Minuet more and more. If she could help it, Allen would never have to suffer under him again. When the war was over, maybe he could come back to Tyrian with her... She'd talk to him about it after the war was over.

"Be that as it may, Allen, you know him better than anyone. You're experience with him will be invaluable in the search." Komui understood, really he did, but they needed to find the general. "You set out tomorrow morning."

"Do we even have any clue as to where he might be, brother?" It was a big world, and Linalee didn't want to have to search the entire thing looking for him.

"No," everyone's heart sank at the word, "but Allen has a way to find him."

"What? I don't-"

"Timcanpy was made by General Cross. This particular golem can always find its way back to its maker, so just ask it where Cross is." Komui explained, setting Timcanpy in the middle of the room. "Tim, where is Cross?" Timcanpy fluttered around the room a little bit, then stopped, facing due East. "At great distances, he can only tell directions, but as you get closer, it'll be more specific."

"Well, then I guess we're going East. See you tomorrow. I gotta help the ol' Panda pack." Lavi tried to dodge the flying sidekick, but as always, was unsuccessful.

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Author's note:

1: Listen to the song "Successor Lavi" from the DGM anime soundtrack. That's what Min was humming. Isn't it great to have the songs for each person already written for you?


End file.
